I'll try to let the pictures tell most of the story. I did change cameras and my Fuji did not like the Pentax's pictures on its SD card and deleted them but left the folder they were in, thus in those cases there will only be after pictures.
For this buggy function will over ride maintaining originality or looks. I want close to factory running gear (cost/maintenance factors) as I am not worried whose vehicle is the cutest or the fastest. I have a corvette and a motorcycle if I feel the need for speed. So let us start on this journey. Feel free to chime in at any time with comments good/bad or questions.

very limited wheel/tire travel
at close to full extension the front & half travel in the rear tires were contacting fiberglass, not good. Bugzilla to the rescue with a 3 inch body lift.

Craftsmanship and nature took a toll as well.
another angle
again
again
While waiting for BugZyla to fab up my 3 inch body lift I became the new owner of a welder, jig saw, grinder, cutoff saw, & small air compressor my credit card grunted and the local economy momentarily rebounded. Ah, its midnight so will call it quits for the night. More later.

A visit to BAP Auto provided driver's side 1/4 pans. Front 1/2 fit perfectly, the rear half was not a full width which would have required extensive mods/work to make even marginally operational so back online and found what was needed at Mid America Motorworks. Once the rear half arrived I had to slice 1+ foot from the apprx middle of it as my buggy has a shortened pan. Once resized to correctly fit, welded into place where the old one was removed from. Used auto body caulking from O'reily's Auto to seal all the edges. Then bedlinered the top side and undercoated the bottom.
from the passenger side the weld joints are visible on the driver's side pan.
No more concern of falling through the floor.

The PO had parked the buggy as the clutch arm hook had broke on the 1959 pedal assembly and he could not figure out how to install the new one (the crack shown in previous post on the tunnel had disfigured the inside the tube nut retainers). After I welded the tube back into place the nut retainer realigned so the new pedal assembly would fit. I thought it best to replace the clutch cable since the catch the goes on the pedal hook was worn most of the way through. Chirco's via ebay quickly sent the needed part. Reviewing the old one when removed showed unusual abrasion about half way down its length that raised some concern. Going into the center tube showed that there was 16 inches missing from clutch tube/pipe and the ends did not line up. I could not locate OEM replacement so opted for 1/2 EMT tubing from Home Depot. EMT did not match up front or back connections, so put short sections of the old tubing inside each end of the EMT and welded up. Now front and back are back to factory dimensions so bowden tube and front weld point to remain.
Dimensional differences.....little blurry but can see the differences
how setup
installed
Before putting the new cable through, motorcycle chain lube was sprayed through and lots of wheel grease was coated into the cable as it was installed.

Here is a pic that got me digging further in. Notice the steering flex ring rubbing on & partially through the gas tank. The arcs on the tie rod bars are not optical illusions of the camera lenses. One side looked to be the original tie rod/ends. So I popped that all loose and out, including the gas tank (PO had thrown a spun aluminum tank in the back seat area and left the front mounted tank disconnected at the back. Fuel line was 1/4" copper left unstoppered at the back. Examining the tank found it full of rust. With the gas tank out it was now easy to inspect the front wiring, master cylinder, steering gearbox, brake lines. I found the rubber lines shot, wiring as bad as that under the dash, rust in the empty master cylinder, and the steering gearbox was also uncapped with rust & dust inside.
View showing the tank out and how easy access is with it out
So now there is a lot of stuff to address. Online shopping again. Chirco's for upgraded dual circuit master cylinder and Volvo type tank for it. Joe also supplied the longer rubber front hoses (also upgraded the front drums to CPI1's disk brake conversion kit) and rear rubber brake lines as well. AutohauseAZ was having a sale. They supplied a TRW steering gearbox, Meyle tie rod assemblies for both sides, with matching steering dampener. Most of these items can be seen installed in the pic above.

Notice the pile of wires on the ground to the drivers side front of the buggy in the last pic? Yup, I went wire cutting crazy and gutted all the wires, to start fresh. Ah, but I skipped the most "fun" part of this adventure, the gas tank. I looked found 5/32 brake line that got fed through the center tunnel, and yes that was an educational first for me. If you haven't got to do that yet, you don't know what you are missing. The gas tank was a cut down, modified 7 gallon model. When replacing I opted to move up to the 16 gallon model. That required a little modding. Here is why.....sits higher than OE
caused this
and this
another view
so I did this--notice the measure 2x & cut 1x not observed
another angle
to this
another angle
to end as this
Front could be a good spot for the AZ Baja logo and will probably work as a bug/rock deflector. I do still need to cut a fuel door. Anyone have any ideas on that? Top is only 5 1/2 inches across. am thinking about just a square or circle with hinges & a stop or cutting across the top and part way down the edge (easier fuel pump access when refueling.
For week I was fiberglass itchy. The really "fun" part of glass work. I did learn this on my own.... when you finish the glass work for the day, roll one of those clothing lint removers (it is a roller with sticky tape installed sticky side out) over your skin, then use it again after your bath/shower and you dry off and feel you missed a spot. It really really worked good for me. Well, it's after midnight again, so this days journey ends. For our troops past, present, and future... Here's to you.

Most everything up to this point that I had inspected needed repaired or replaced. The front brakes kept up this theme. Leaky cylinders meant at least 2 cylinders & front shoes along with whatever 50+ years of wear and tear might require fixing or replacing. So I compared $200 for completely new front discs with at least $60 to possibly $100+ for drum brake repair (new quality shoes, cylinders, seals, and turning hubs) I opted for the $100 to $160 difference to get an upgrade over stock, which would clear up brake fade, and calendar maintenance time that drum brakes require. This is the kit I ordered. www2.cip1.com/ProductD...C-C10-4120
On the plus side everything was provided, fit, and went together smooth as butter. The wheel bearings and race were shot on the passenger side. Would have had to replace both sides to safely match (personal choice on unknown vehicle) so my upgrade was more towards the low end--good choice. With the front end down to the spindles for the brake upgrade I checked the kingpins and linkpins. I got lucky and the kings were tight but links were loose and full adjustment could not get the tight enough. BAP was happy to sell me linkpin kits. Installed and greased everything was looking feeling good, added disc kit on then everything was looking rosy.
I started routing wires in the front for the lighting. Inspecting the "headlights" I noticed that they were not DOT actual headlights but were actually very bright halogen offroad lights. Oncoming cars at night would not appreciate that. Not to mention law enforcement would rightly frown on them used i place of actual headlights. I got another break in that the old 4 headlight cars from back in the 50'-70's used the same size of bulb. Trip to O'reileys auto for the correct electrical plug and bulbs and front lights are street legal. More to come.

Well today I played some more. Still working the front section of the buggy. I have added in the 16 gal fuel tank instead of the 7 gal one. I wanted to know what kinds of stress the extra fuel would put on the glass that is holding the tank. So here is my math calcs that I used. Gasoline weighs 6.073 lbs. 7 gal tank would be 42.511 lbs, 16 gal would be 97.168 lbs. 97 lbs does not sound like too much right? Plan ahead... this buggy will be offroad,,, with the associated bumps, thumps, jolts, and occasional little jump. So I wanted to figure the tank stress weight as calculated in G's of force. The easy way to figure G's of force is to measure distance dropped by the stopping distance -1. So lets plug in some real world numbers to measure. Lets say a 3 foot jump (and ignore things like inertial shifting, fuel sloshing, etc which can dramatically raise or lower the results) and say that my 1959 VW shocks have 6" of travel (actually less) and that the force is evenly and is stopped just at the end of the shock thavel... yeah right. Using these numbers we have 36 inches (3 foot drop) divided by 6 inches (stopping distance) -1 or 36/6 -1=5G's. Make sense? So a perfect jump that does not slam bottoming out would provide stress amounting to about 500lbs (97lbs multiplied by 5Gs =485). With that stress bracing up the front seemed needed. Here is how I did it....
off the top of the torsion tube clamp I welded these all-threads
Since the hood/windshield/dash is held on by 2 bolts ran through the fender and hood about 4-6 inches apart just below and in front of the windshield frame mounting bolts, I continued the bolts up to connect to these hood pins the better support the hood as well. Two birds with one stone thing.
Since I wanted to set everything up so that the wiring was obvious on what and where add/run to finish, installed the front bumper with attached Hella lights.
Well, here it is about midnight again with lots still to do..

Thanks Mykul.
I had read that about Chirco's on their customer reviews. Mid America had a different part number. Which is why the one from Mid America. It is advertised now as 15 gal tank.www.mamotorworkstv.com...gal319166/
Hoping it is a different tank than Joe's but, figuring it is probably the same.

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